Hair shirt 1

The swingeing of the BBC axe on both headcount and total salaries of senior managers by more than 25% is to be commended, if slightly tempered by the news that expenses have risen by 20%.

But the picture is not consistent, and those remaining on SM grade, where salaries are supposedly frozen, will be the most avid readers of the latest figures.

Let's take John Tate, the Head of Strategy, whose team came up with the closure of 6Music and The Asian Network - strategies since abandoned.  His last reported salary was £180k pa.  In the new figures it remains unchanged, but he adds £80k for chairing BBC Studios and Post Production.  The division of his time is unclear - surely he isn't now working more than 37 hours a week on both jobs ?  And there's no word of a commensurate £80k cut in the remuneration of John Smith, outgoing chair of BBC Studios and Post Production.  If Mr Tate is getting paid for the Studios role, is his new board member, Alan Yentob, also being recompensed for his time ?

• Mr Tate remains interested in spreading the message of the BBC abroad. See here for his June trip to Munich, and here for visits to Portgual and Korea.  We note that he is one of very few speakers from the northern hemisphere at "Broadcasting Australia 2012" being held in Sydney on the 14th and 15th of March.